Opinion: Comprehensive Plan Update Features Developer Gold Mines and Citizen Land Mines

Letters to the Editor September 23, 2022

 Chair Ann Wheeler belatedly acknowledged that the Prince William Digital Gateway CPA review was “confusing” and announced a delay in bringing it to the Board of County Supervisors for a vote.  Despite the obviously compromised nature of the September 14th Planning Commission public hearing, there was no mention of invalidating its recommendation or conducting a new hearing under more trustworthy conditions.  So, you can expect the pause is merely designed to give weary citizens time to forget.

 

Now we must pivot almost immediately to another public hearing on updates to the county’s comprehensive plan this Wednesday evening.

 

The comprehensive plan is an exhaustive document that the average citizen cannot possibly digest and review in a single evening.  We would normally rely on professional government staff and our elected officials to look out for our best interests.  Unfortunately, we have very recently been reminded that they cannot be trusted to do so.  It is far more likely that they intend to sneak sweetheart deals for their developer cronies past us, literally in the dark of night.

 

Unless you have the time and expertise to interpret the myriad changes, you won’t notice subtle alterations with significant impacts.  Watch for blanket zoning recharacterizations that sidestep contentious CPA reviews and surreptitiously authorize data centers where public outcry would have created obstacles.  I would specifically watch for this to happen in the areas where Devlin Technology Park and John Marshall Commons were contested.  

 

The Comprehensive Plan update is too important and sweeping to be relegated to a late-night railroading.  If the Supervisors are confident of their vision for the future of this county, they should exhibit the transparency to explain it to the citizens and the courage to debate it during the upcoming 2023 election cycle.

Bill Wright

Gainesville

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  LETTER TO THE EDITOR   Anti-Digital Gateway Activist Endorses Deshundra Jefferson for Chair   Gainesville resident Bill Wright supports Jefferson-D for Chair of Prince William County Board of Supervisors   Posted Wednesday, April 12, 2023     ( Anti-Digital Gateway Activist Endorses Deshundra Jefferson for Chair - Bristow Beat ) Ask yourself: Are you better off than you were four years ago, or have your dreams been hijacked to serve the selfish aims of others? Prince William County is at a crossroads and the 2023 elections will decide whether we free ourselves from subservience to developer exploitation or slip permanently into the abyss.    A positive change awaits in the candidacy of Deshundra Jefferson for County Board Chair.  She vows to restore transparency and integrity to a government that has been quick to abuse your trust and give away the store to big tech predators who are gorging on your slice...
Read more
Image
  Subject: A Trojan Horse at the Gate On March 7 th , members of the Heritage Hunt Homeowner’s Association met with representatives from QTS to hear about their plans for developing the adjacent Prince William Digital Gateway.  They had previously met with representatives from Compass Datacenters on February 28 th .  The Heritage Hunt Board of Directors is justifiably wary of interlopers who have demonstrated they will employ any tactic that serves their interests.  The Heritage Hunt Board wrote: “Our previously stated concerns that the Digital Gateway is inappropriate for the Pageland area and that there are more suitable uses for that land has not changed.”  Citizens of Prince William County are still irate over the unethical practices employed by QTS and Compass in strong-arming their way into our area despite broad public opposition.  Both corporations negotiated plans secretly, under the cloak of non-disclosure agreements designed to inhibit publi...
Read more

Pay-for-Play on Full Display

Image
  Friends and Neighbors, In light of the shameless Devlin Technology Park betrayal ( UPDATED: Prince William Supervisors OK Devlin data centers despite residents' objections | News | princewilliamtimes.com ), how many of you have been wondering how public officials sworn to represent your interests can not only be indifferent to your welfare, but actually take the side of predatory corporations determined to exploit you? Peruse the multiple tabs of the spreadsheet at:   Donations Driving Data Centers - Google Sheets   and wonder no more.  Instead, wonder why any of us ever thought we might get the time-of-day from blatant political prostitutes masquerading as supervisors.  If you want their attention, you’re going to need a bigger suitcase full of cash.  If the obscene amount of money showered on our current crop of Democratic supervisors isn’t a corrupting influence, I don’t know what is.   Now prepare yourselves for the next public fleecin...
Read more